three months of rally with standing police beatings severe weather and evictions coming up a closer look at what's ahead for this movement. and speaking of change at the death of north korean leader kim jong il catapult his young son to power but will the untested and inexperienced son open the door or keep it shot for the future of north korea. it is monday december nineteenth five pm in washington d.c. i'm christine you're watching our t.v. . well it has been one year of revolution that started in tunisia so now that we've reached the one year anniversary of the start of the arab spring we want to talk about what has changed what the future may hold but before we look ahead let's take a look back and see how it all started. it was a single move made by

a single man twenty six year old mohamed bouazizi set himself on fire after police took his fruit and vegetable cart away from him because he refused to pay them on his actions a protest against a way of life he deemed unfair he died a few weeks later but his one action ignited what soon became the arab spring starting with the ouster of tunisia's own president. ben ali after twenty three years in power. next came protests and revolution in egypt with thousands in the streets demanding major change to the political and economic system there at times it was a violent uprising with more than eight hundred people killed but demonstrators refused to cane. and on february eleventh two thousand and eleven egyptian president hosni mubarak resigned after thirty years in power. next came a civil war in libya with those loyal to colonel moammar gadhafi and those who

wanted him gone u.s. and nato forces got involved providing training aid and weapons to those they deemed rebel fighters after much resistance gadhafi government was overthrown and a few weeks later he was captured in his hometown of sirte dragged into the street and brutally killed. on rust and protest also seen in syria yemen and bahrain even spread to jordan and kuwait the political landscape across the middle east and africa is forever altered time magazine named the protester its person of the year in two thousand and eleven. the act is that in himself on fire it may have been personal for boys these but it sparked a year of protests of revolution and of change. so leaders across the arab world have fallen and more could be on the way but despite many of these revolutions being supported by the united states these new leaders are more

religiously conservative both in egypt's parliamentary elections and internees as islam ists have gotten the most support and will likely be the rulers in this country and the post arab spring world i want to bring in robert naiman policy director at just foreign policy dot com. hey robert let's talk about the transition to the new leaders the new government there are people in the western world who worry that some will come into power and immediately start you know imposing sharia law and that will be that do you think his concerns are justified well i think the concerns are legitimate so far i think they're overblown it's important to remember that these concerns were used for a long time to buttress these regimes so mubarak for example said you know it's either me or the muslim brotherhood and that's why you have to accept whatever i do and shut your mouth about democracy human rights so we should guard these concerns

with skepticism if only for that reason that they've been used to justify carte blanche for repression if you look at what's happened so far you know there was a democratic election in tunisia the islamist or. share thoughts and it was just a promise that we do tend to form a coalition government with liberal and secular parties. similarly the muslim brotherhood in egypt which got the largest chunk of votes has indicated its interest in like in tunisia rule imune a coalition with the bro and secular parties and many of the islamic parties in the regions have cited turkey as a model just consider you know moderate islamist government that. spreads protected again the case of turkey has expanded democracy and human rights but i think it's fair to say roberts or that should have been you know one ought to

take them in time text i think it's fair to say that i mean you talk about you know for example the muslim brotherhood in egypt willing to work together with some of the other parties it's one thing to work within your country with other parties but what about when it comes to future dealings that with for example the u.s. or other western countries i mean is it possible that you know the u.s. at the state department will be able to negotiate for example with the muslim brotherhood or with the salaf easier or with some of these other leaders in tunisia and turkey well the muslim brotherhood is one thing the cell of his are another the u.s. has open dialogue with the muslim brotherhood in egypt actually their contacts going back for years and we know that there is no intrinsic contradiction between being islamised which covers a lot of ground and having good relations with the u.s. after all you know the government in pakistan and the government in afghanistan and

the leading parties in iraq certainly the government saudi arabia is some of this really so there's no inherent contradiction no it's true that for example but egypt the muslim brotherhood has been very critical of the egyptian government's policy with respect to israel palestine very critical of the gaza blockade which the egyptian government. just so there's going to be change there the question is you know can that change be managed and negotiate yeah you is also going to have to move arguably it's going to move in a good direction because gaza blockade is immoral and should fall in the muslim brotherhood is right about that you know little people around the world we're not islam is a group with the muslim brotherhood good deeds of the blood and doesn't so i think i think this is a shift that the u.s. government going to comedy if it's reasonable that it should be reason hard to

imagine the release from where i sit in washington when you see you know even just the g.o.p. candidates talking about the importance of israel. it's going to be an interesting thing to keep our eyes on as we look ahead i do want to talk just a little bit more specifically about egypt and even just what we saw there over the weekend i know on this one year anniversary of boise's action in tunisia we do think about what happened in egypt into her square and what we saw in cairo on saturday and sort of look like what we saw there ten months ago when i want to show some video here take a look. so the violence is not going away and there's this photo here of this woman being dragged through the street many demonstrators in egypt say you know what things haven't gotten better since hosni mubarak stepped down and protesters are demanding that the military police hand over power to civilians but as we know that they still do have a lot of power so robert what's the take away from this i mean that revolution does

not a democracy make. well clearly it's an unfinished revolution they got rid of mubarak and that was one goal but. protesters along there always said that that wasn't the ultimate goal the ultimate goal was democracy and human rights in obviously of their own area they have a it's an unfinished revolution they have now are in the process of have an election which is in judge relatively free and fair and the question is whether the new terry key question will hand over power to a democratically elected government that is not yet a result of the the military has a back down to live again lead to some of their earlier claims about how they would maintain power so it's an unfinished story i think that's a takeaway it's an unfinished jury and there's a process there that's not complete and you know the u.s. role in the u.s.

is something that deserves further scrutiny because you know you showed those pictures from the street in in cairo that's the egyptian military that gets of one point three billion dollars a year and u.s. military people should be asking the u.s. government what are you doing about this given the backing of the united states the egyptian the timing that's a really important part question to be there speaking of other countries that the u.s. has backed let's talk to talk about libya i mean moammar gadhafi is dead and it seems to me at least that after that happened a lot of people sort of waved their victory flags and moved on we don't see a lot of what's going on but i'm pretty sure there are still clashes going on and a lot of unfinished business what do you see as going on in libya right now. one piece of unfinished business is that there's never been any accountability who are the killings of libyan civilians by nato there was just in the last few days

there was a very damning article in the new york times in. times in its own investigation reports of civilian deaths and casualty as a result of nato airstrikes and they confronted it with this report no it was they have any interest in this issue and the quote human rights groups like human rights watch and survey saying that there is a climate of impunity around civilian deaths and casualties in libya as a result of nato and the gear they can dress as their afghanistan where as a result of pressure need to has you know now as a policy really investigate complaints. and you know try to compensate victims not of their. libyan so there is unfinished business there and i think you're right there you know other that this was a story that sorted with purported concern about protecting civilians you know once they got to go all that they saw was overthrowing libyan government the

a concern about civilians appears to have spear right robert naiman policy director at just foreign policy dot org in our bana illinois well there is also the celebration of at least another anniversary that happened over the weekend this is in many ways to relate it to the arab spring it's called by sound the american autumn book surely to be headed into winter and this is a movement that is also an outcry against economic injustice corruption and a growing gap between the rich and poor and has come to be known as occupy wall street three months in and still going strong are to correspond going to take a look at the movement itself what it stands for and also how it's evolved. these are the images of america over the last three months that cops are must be checking themselves in the forehead because they've given such life to this movement not welcome by authorities the movement against wall street wealth

inequality and government corruption exploded in new york and spread all across the us next and all of our grievances was the the profit motive the fact that. the corporate sector dominated by the financial sector has our tensely democratic politics in gridlock and owns it. occupy wall street has just marked its three month anniversary what we call him here on september seventeenth with that moment a moment in anger when the. now i think that we've kind of injected the idea of economic inequality in the public discourse my argument was the past right that it would not last month and the liver and the significant benefits but the response is the biggest shine light on the west. it's clear that the protesters are feeling stronger and more united than it was critics said the protests would not survive

until winter they have we can't fund education we can't fund health care but we could fund the police state and fund these wars until the cows come home at what point is it enough. when there's a great stop opponents said the demonstrations would never track tens of thousands they have i would prefer of news a peaceful revolution. really what the media ridiculed them as a joke they didn't have a party in there with him he is trying to have burning rather the right guy. but kidding they were not. many movies the uprising has transformed the themes of america it's totally changed the conversation in the united states on saturday the occupiers of new york back relaxed. samplers after being evicted from zuccotti park . attempted to occupy a new public space to use as their base. but confronted by police about fifty were arrested others kicked out with pretty

resilient i think you know in a short amount of time and. surely the. demonstrators plan to keep going until they see a revamp of the high land and political system in the us the financial elite is still lording it over everyone the economy is in trouble foreclosures are continuing to grow all the real reasons for protests and the movement will continue no matter the obstacles the goal of occupy wall street is to make history we're growing and we're going to be the transformative moment for example an economic justice in america. fourteen. all right some important points here about the movement's impact on public conversation and also on that spotlight now shined on police brutality in this country has played a major role in drumming up more support not less we also can't forget that occupy movements are taking place all around the country not just new york and despite

police dismantling many of the occupations the movement thrives in those other cities as well i want to go now to boston and speak to joseph ramsey josef is with occupy boston. hey there joseph i guess kind of give us an update what's going on with the occupy movement where you are more than a. we're obviously in a transitional period we have also been evicted from dewey square but i'd say at this moment in time the occupy boston movement the occupy movement generally is in the transitional period seeking new spaces for our you know for our politics for our meeting but also really trying to literalize to congress our our ideas. in the context of you know of a of a system in crisis i mean we've been evicted we are seeking to become the champion

of the. educational project continue there is. lacking a space a public space doesn't mean that are there are mission discontinued you can't. i think it's been one of the most common refrain the last couple weeks you can't evict an idea and we're popping up all over i don't even know where to start i mean i can you know that the suburbs of boston are percolating with that so i'm wondering yes i mean. certainly occupation sort of came to embody the movement itself just staying there and night in one place but you know for one thing winter has arrived it's much colder i'm sure much colder even than boston is here but are the occupations still needed i mean could this possibly be just the next step you say a transition into planned actions but not necessarily occupations especially because you know we've got the internet we've got to worry about facebook talk to me

a little bit about that. i mean i think there are basically two concepts that united this movement across the us at this point one is the occupation tactic right i mean which i think has some content it's not simply a means to say it's been about taking control of public space. of the concerns it's about sorting our right to protest regardless of whether or not the state respects that right. so the occupy i mean but i don't think that that is not what's going on the other the other thing to find trope symbol of this movement of the ninety nine percent right now i think that is really ultimately more fundamental that's really the content of this movement what is the ninety nine percent me i mean it means really what it does point a finger at the one percent we have we have an economy we have a political system that potentially benefit the one percent or even maybe less than the one percent. that means that you know you have the wealth and the power of.

accruing to a very small number of people and that essentially makes a mockery of democracy i mean that money is power but the only thing about the ninety nine percent motif is that ninety nine to one are great ought not simply in other words ninety nine percent isn't simply saying we're victimized by the one percent but it also implicitly imply you know suggest that we have power that ninety nine percent of the population could overwhelm in one sense or another you know the one percent i think that's the real truth i mean i think we need to find creative ways to embody that truth that's really what this about not simply the. i think that's a really good point i think that certainly when you talk about the ninety nine percent and the one percent those are terms that roll of people talking on this regular lexicon now for one because of this movement back i mean the u.s. has had a history of protest movements. just go back to the one hundred fifty and one hundred seventy s.

a lot was achieved and. terms of civil rights and women's rights but those were to an extent liberal movements as a lot of people call the occupy wall street movement and that changed and things got quassia a little bit when you saw more conservative people being elected into office i'm wondering if you guys have spoken there in boston about this you know how do you keep. us from meeting the same fate. i don't think there's any magical solution but there are people in boston and i've actually been accomplished with a number of them who would like us to pass a resolution swearing off the two major parties. in a sense i'm sympathetic with that in the into part i feel that democrats and republicans are both part of the problem there are two slides within the structures of oppression exploitation they take their orders their marching orders from the one percent nonetheless it occupy boston simply passing a resolution against the two major parties and going to guarantee said you know in

a sense i think we need to build foundations and take this winter really to kind of so the seeds for the spring by making contact with those who are being victimized by the system i mean i see activism within occupy boston is in two categories one exposing the one percent and one is defending the ninety nine percent and particularly those amongst the ninety nine percent who who are who are most you know most exposed to the to the to the violent to the system people who are facing eviction people who can't pay their healthcare bill people people who who are basically for whom these issues of inequality are actually like. not only within this country either but worldwide and so you know so i don't think it's a matter there's no magic solution to avoid this we need to we need to work on a day to day basis to try to build power and to expose expose the one percent in order to ninety nine percent whether it's in educational institutions neighborhood work across the country i'm hearing

a lot of what you just talked about of people who want to swear off the two party system of people who say you know what the system is too corrupt we need a new system altogether but you know just realistically speaking in some ways you've got to work within the system first and that's what i'm wondering is there talk i mean. by wasserman has loosely been compared in the past to the tea party movement one of the tea party they went and they got people elected to then sort of carry out their fight where the fight happened are you hearing anything about this about you know let's let's get some candidates up and running here. i haven't heard much about that. i'm not categorically opposed but he would be my one requirement for any such move would be i would want any occupy candidate to come from our own ranks i don't think that our movement should be looking for people to spout rhetoric. and and we should not cook our hope

anyone who simply speaks the language they should be some of these walk the walk talk talk and frankly i think that any electoral activity should be really intact sure lies within the context of a larger movement it shouldn't just be about getting ten elected but what can that what can that tended to see in that movement actually do to highlight these issues to move the people struggle forward i think we need to see electoral activism if we decide to lexically as a means to an end it's not the end because in this society the wealth and the power or the economics which are the fundamental power of the system is not a matter of vote you don't get to vote. all right well. you know we're out of time just a little thank you so much joseph ramsey it with occupy boston some interesting points there. still ahead here on r t keeping it in the family that's exactly what north korea is doing following the death of its leader kim jong il when we come

back we'll take a closer look at the young successor who is now at the help. with the upgrade of the police corruption in the the with what what it looked after the end nobody seems to know. but never a pepper sprayed the face but part of the argument that they're being overly dramatic.

to the capital account a crime lord mr. well north korea's dear leader kim jong il is dead according to reports out of north korea he died of exhaustion while riding on a train the world now waits to see what's next with japan voicing fears of a possible military escalation in the korean peninsula and also

a state of emergency and military alert declared by south korea kim jong il's youngest son kim jong un is expected to assume power many now wonder how he will lead and to what extent he will follow in his father's footsteps argy correspondent lisa now i reports on the man who personified north korea's communist state. a mystery to the world what now for north korea with its leader kim jong il dong this massive military great was held in two thousand and eight to mark north korea's sixtieth anniversary general can john wasn't there to greet the crowd the port suggested he suffered a stroke in two thousand and three reports claimed kim jong il died of diabetes and had been replaced in public by stand ins hired previously as a security measure he never spoke to the media had a profound fear of flying and ate with special chopsticks which could detect poison

rumors have surrounded the so-called supreme leader throughout his life beginning with birth according to one source he was born in the soviet union in one nine hundred forty one during his father's exile all kim jong il's official biography claims his birth was heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow. our people take pride in the fact that they are blessed with great glee there's from generation to generation. the leader of the democratic people's republic of korea since one thousand nine hundred ninety four he succeeded his father kim il sung keeping korea close to the world kim jong il was also named supreme commander of the people's army one of the largest in the world with one million active troops and over four million reservist it's believed enormous funds allocated to its military might ate up north korea's resources needed to fight famine and other social problems but kim jong il and his regime tried to put on

a different show when allowing the globe a glimpse inside one of the you know in our thought or the general. thank you so much others you know after the korean war the demilitarized zone was drawn up sending north and south korea into very different directions. decades on the north remains a closed communist state the south a modern democracy an innovative success story north korea has caused global outrage in recent years has two patients by carrying out underground nuclear test and short range missile launches leading to us in un financial and military sanctions it is now not a matter of the united states and north korea it is really a matter of the region saying to north korea that it has to change its behavior russia has tried to be a mediator for peace on the peninsula by pushing for negotiations or in the asia pacific region this serious potential for conflict and there's no alternative but

to set up dialogue and improve understanding between this saw you in twenty ten new bugs who operate in the north with talk of the possible next leader that's when kim john on became a four star general and first moved into line to take over for his father oversaw tensions reached its highest point in decades after the north launched an artillery strike that left four dead south korea continues to hold large scale war games with the u.s. and japan and want to conflict would break out if another attack was launched now kim john on a young and inexperienced leader is at the helm and will either open the door or continue to keep it shot. this roadway station was built in two thousand and two with hopes of connecting seoul and palin yang but the north korean regime backed out at the last minute making this a lot stop train heading back into the south now with kim jong il that there is new hope that perhaps soon we could see

a train heading in that. setting light on the most secretive and reply. in the world and he's now our team korea. well that will do it for now but for more on the stories we cover go to our team dot com slash usa or youtube dot com slash r t america i'm christine for. sure is that so much money coming in which of course you want on it you know until it is like a pleasing phoenix rising from the air she's newt gingrich again shows himself to be a major figure in american politics does she represent the republican party. if you.